MC CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Missing Food

By Allison Luppe
Study Abroad Student

So, whenever I went to the UK, I knew that there were some things that were going to be different about the food. I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to find Cheerios for my cereal or peanut butter based on some of the research I had done. And I was right in one of those respects: peanut butter is really hard to find in the UK. Cheerios were actually on the shelves in Sainsbury's but I decided to stick with the Frosties cereal to put into my tea mug shaped bowl (I am that level of a tea nerd).

One thing that I wasn't expecting was how much I would miss some of the food that I had gotten accustomed to finding whenever I got back. So here is a list of the foods that I've missed since I've gotten back.

1) Jaffa Cakes

These wonderful mixtures of cookies and sponge cakes are exactly what I just described them as. They are spongey cookies covered in a light chocolate and with an orange center. There is debate in the UK as to how you should eat them, but I always ate them by the box thank you very much. They are incredibly addictive which is probably why I finally caved and bought a three-pack of them off of Amazon and was willing to wait for the two weeks for them.

2) Digestives

These are like Jaffa cake's older and cookie-er brother. Rather than having a sponge cake base, these are cookie based sometimes with a chocolate covering and sometimes without. They are really nice to dip in a cup of tea before you run to class. Also, yes, I am aware that that could have been the most British thing I could have said.

3) Pasties

This might have been more of a Plymouth thing since the city is so close to Cornwall, but pasties are freaking great. They are almost like calzones, but instead of tomato sauce and cheese, they are made with beef chunks and sometimes vegetables. They are meals wrapped up in a doughy container and are really easy to simply enjoy while you sit on one of the benches watching people walk by.

4) Irn Bru

I realize that this isn't technically food, but I can't find this soda in US grocery stores so it's going on the list of things that I miss. This drink is really hard to describe and even harder to explain why I like it. It tastes a lot like the fake citrus taste that they add to medicine to help kids take it, but there's a kind of addictive quality to it that made it one of my favored drinks even though it's technically Scottish.

5) Jelly Babies

Okay, so if you're a classic Doctor Who fan then you will probably recognize these a little. These are Jelly Babies, little gummy candies that are covered in a thin layer of something resembling flour. Even though I sort of gorged myself on them in the first month, they were still really good and something that I miss.

Even though I know that I could probably find most of these if I ordered them off Amazon, I realized that I didn't want to do that just yet. Probably once more of the nostalgia sets in I will be willing to do that. But for now, I will patiently wait for my Jaffa cakes and try and reconcile the fact that I have to wait so long for the things that I had grown accustomed to while abroad.